The right of nations to self-determination as the fundamental principle of Soviet federalism

Abstract

The subject of this research is the process of establishment and development of the right of nations to self-determination as the fundamental principle of Soviet federalism. The author carefully examines the origin and evolution of the idea of the right of nations to self-determination within the environment of the revolutionary social democracy; the concept, characteristics and principles of the right of nations to self-determination; the normative unification of the right of nations to self-determination with the federal principle of government system in the Soviet constitutions; variations of exercising this right within the framework of socialist federal state. Special attention is given to the evolution of the right of nations to self-determination and the transformation of its goals at different stages of the development of Soviet State. The novelty of this research consists in formulation of the original definition of the right of nations to self-determination in the context of phenomenology of the Soviet federalism. The key characteristics of this right are outlined: 1) suggests multivariance of implementation; 2) drags on time depending on the socioeconomic and political-legal development of the nation; 3) implies adequacy of implementation to the level of collective national sociocultural and political self-identity, etc. The principles of the right in question are determined : 1) priority of actual self-determination in relation to legal formalization if the latter is mandatory; 2) definiteness of the right of nations to self-determination via national declaration of will with regards to legitimation by the positivistic attitudes of the state; 3) evolution in chronological perspective from the national legal nature towards international legal level, etc. The author derives the criteria and classifies the right of nations to self-determination based on them. Description is given to the peculiarities of regulation and implementation of the right of nations to self-determination in accordance with the development stages of the Soviet Federation The author's special contribution lies in the establishment of dialectical link between the formational and civilizational approaches towards comprehension of the essence of the right of nations to self-determination through the prism of the European and Russian social democracy.